My latest Pajamas Media column, Who Will Raise The Octuplets’ Mom’s Kids: Taxpayers! is up. An excerpt:
Perhaps there’s a sick genius behind Nadya Suleman’s choice to have her octuplets while unmarried, unemployed, and living in her parents’ basement: that $1.5 to $3 million hospital bill won’t be her responsibility.
Oh, sure, the whack jobs at PETA want us all to fornicate with veggies, but they’re silent when it comes to boid moider.
Then again, what should one expect from an anti-fur organization that handed out fur coats to the homeless at the Inauguration along with hot coffee in cups that said “Thank you for not wearing fur.”
When confronted by a friend who claims you owe him money which you claim you don’t owe, it might not be a good idea to brandish an iron bar in your hand while asking God to punish you if you’re lying.
Because you just might get what you ask for.
Selling $1.99 gas to promote electric cars? What’s next, holding an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet to fight obesity?
You know that awful shade of dark yellow that your pee turns when you’re hungover?
Folks down the street are painting their house that color.
Ew.
Green activist Dan Glass attempted to Super Glue himself to Gordin Brown, the U.K.’s Prime Minister, last night. After smuggling 5 pouches of the glue in his underwear to get past security at 10 Downing Street, Glass poured the stuff over his hand during Browns’ speech. Then, at the awards ceremony, he fastened his hand to Brown’s sleeve.
“I just glued myself to him and after 20 seconds he tore my hand off – it really hurt. He had to give it a couple of tugs before it came away.
“He was just grinning about it. He didn’t seem to take me seriously.”
Afterwards, Glass was allowed to remain for the ceremony while Brown continued chuckling over the stunt. Undeterred, Glass tried to attach himself to the gates at Downing Street but was detached by a police officer. “I didn’t have much glue left”, he noted.
Sheesh. Doesn’t that crazy environmentalist know how many eco-damaging chemicals are in Super Glue?
After publishing my piece on Michelle Obama at Pajamas Media, I remember why I so seldom write political stuff anymore. Idiots, like mosquitoes in the summertime, start swarming and no matter how much I swat I can’t rid myself of the pesky little things.
The latest is “Brad”, who left such a knee-jerk an ignorant response here on EV that I had to pause and chuckle (okay, cackle) before deciding I was long overdue for a Fisk. And so, without further ado, it’s time to start swatting the idiots:
It’s amazing how people can easily embrace their inner racist so easily like you Kate have. Revising history as you did takes real talent and a disregard for facts.
Facts? You want facts? Well, let’s see: my article at PM linked plenty of references. Where are yours? Oh, that’s right: you reached past your head to pull assertions out of your ass. Quite the limber one you are, no?
Michelle Obama grew up in a working class family on the South Side of Chicago. That’s a documented fact.
If by “working class” you mean that her parents both held jobs then, fine. So did mine. So do most peoples’, for that matter. Are you saying I should applaud that two black adults held down jobs? Why, that sounds a bit racist to me, Brad.
And as for her humble origins, they look like rather nice digs to me:
Having just booked a flight for our family to visit my mother in Austin, I have to say we came this close to deciding to take the trip by mini-van instead.
But since the trip takes 19+ hours to get there, we realized we’d have to break that into 3 days of driving (because neither my 8-year-old nor I can bear sitting in a car for more than 6 hours at a time), and that would mean 4 additional nights’ lodging, two on the way down and two on the return trip. Oh, and did I mention 19+ hours… each way… in a mini-van with two kids?
Yep, it’s going to cost quite a bit more to fly but ultimately we decided the extra expense is worth it.
But to be honest? If my mom wasn’t going through chemo I don’t think we’d be taking this trip. It’s difficult enough flying during the summer travel season when airplanes are already bulging, but dealing with abusive flight attendants and unruly passengers just adds to the whole tackiness of the experience.
Does anyone remember when flying used to feel luxurious? When airline food, although still laughably bad, was served by smiling employees whose role was more than playing a glorified bouncer/babysitter? (Notice that change in mindset is reflected by the change from stewardesses to “flight attendant”, a description which ultimately says their job is just a matter of showing up on time.) Do you remember how your Mom would insist you dress in your Sunday clothes for the trip?
Heck, these days you’re as likely to get bounced off a flight for what you aren’t wearing as for what you are wearing (even if it’s just a cartoon).
So is it any wonder that more than 1 in 4 Americans decide against air travel because it’s a hassle?
“The air travel crisis has hit a tipping point — more than 100,000 travelers each day are voting with their wallets by choosing to avoid trips,” [president and CEO of the Travel Industry Association, Roger] Dow said in a statement.
That’s a big blow to airlines, many of which are losing money as the industry struggles with soaring fuel costs. Carriers have raised fares, added fees, cut capacity and scaled back expansion plans, and some small airlines have declared bankruptcy, while Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. announced plans to combine in an effort to reduce costs.
Meanwhile, as the list of items prohibited in carry-on luggage grows, so does the expense of packing all those no-nos in your checked luggage now that airlines are charging for each item of luggage.
I did research on that, too, though. Since we’re flying American Airlines, I looked at their baggage allowance rules and found out that we’ll each get to check one suitcase for free. Not so for passengers buying tickets after June 15, though: they’ll be paying $15 per suitcase. Those folks might very well find it cheaper to send their belongings ahead via UPS. How ridiculous is that?
So, heads up, American Airlines: you can claim “We know why you fly” if you want, but you’re wrong. The only — and I repeat only — reason we’re going to subject ourselves to the miserable, dehumanizing, uncomfortable, cramped, smelly and otherwise infuriating experience that air travel has become is simple: it’s legal to drink on a plane. At least, for now, that is.
